Garner Holt takes over Disney's MAPO Division

[RSoxNo1]

Garner had the most impressive booth at the last D23 expo. Using what appeared to be the Segway technology, they had an animatronic that resembled the father from Carousel of Progress on a unicycle peddling back and forth at the top of their booth. It was balancing on an area that couldn't have been more than 6 inches thick.

 

[WDW1974]

It's cheaper just to outsource.

It's cheaper to not even be in business too.

But you can make loads of cash by putting out the best product in the world too. Just ask the Oriental Land Company. They don't need timeshares or dining plans or marketing gimmicks to do so either. They just have better Disney parks than Disney does.

 

[WDW1974]

I think this was announced a while ago.

It's a shame to see this legacy go out the window over to Garner Holt. Something gives me a funny feeling about that guy. I'm not a fan of Disney outsourcing, but you can thank WDI's bloated hierarchy, which leads to high costs, for this.

it was. ... and while some may like it, I'm not very impressed. GH did the entire Mermaid ride at DCA and the figures are not impressive to me.

 

[WDW1974]

Exactly, Iger & company have been slowly but surely gutting the creative infrastructure of the company that Walt spent his entire life building. Before you know it Disney will be a mere branding and marketing company for other peoples work.

It already largely is.

Disney acquires content now instead of creating it ... ABC ... ESPN ... Muppets ... Pixar ... Marvel ... Dreamworks distribution ... Avatar for DAK.

 

[HMF]

It's cheaper to not even be in business too.

Exactly, you have to spend money to make money. After all I only see green pieces of paper with a dead persons face printed on them.

 

[WDW1974]

sigh.....

Depressing, but perhaps it will lead to bigger and better things.

It won't.

But that's the Spirit!

 

[the.dreamfinder]

It already largely is.

Disney acquires content now instead of creating it ... ABC ... ESPN ... Muppets ... Pixar ... Marvel ... Dreamworks distribution ... Avatar for DAK.

That is truly sad. When Disney bought Pixar back in '07, I thought it would be a NeXT-Apple like deal where the company would be rebuilt from the ground up. It appears that this has only really happened in full at Walt Disney Animation. However, isn't true that Roy wanted someone other than Iger? Call it a delayed reinvention, but maybe new management team will bring about a new era where QUALITY is the BEST business plan. Skipper John knows what I mean.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

While I'm working on a mega reply, I would like to clarify that I do not think John Lasseter should be CEO.

 

[Bairstow]

It's cheaper to not even be in business too.

But you can make loads of cash by putting out the best product in the world too. Just ask the Oriental Land Company. They don't need timeshares or dining plans or marketing gimmicks to do so either. They just have better Disney parks than Disney does.

I haven't found a hard source for this yet, but didn't WDI/MAPO build nearly all the AA figures for Oriental Land's Disneysea park, including the one in my avatar?

 

[HMF]

While I'm working on a mega reply, I would like to clarify that I do not think John Lasseter should be CEO.

They need a Roy-like figure who will support and stay out of the way of the Creative people to be CEO and have John Lasseter as the Creative Leader.

 

[flynnibus]

The deal is a lot like arrow back in the day. Disney would focus in show and leave it to arrow to try to make it work and real. Disney later invested in arrow... Disney held a lot of the IP but arrow still build their own rides and still sold to everyone in the industry while still being responsible for many of the original attractions in Dl.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

They need a Roy-like figure who will support and stay out of the way of the Creative people to be CEO and have John Lasseter as the Creative Leader.

Yup, took the words out of my mouth.

 

[WDW1974]

I haven't found a hard source for this yet, but didn't WDI/MAPO build nearly all the AA figures for Oriental Land's Disneysea park, including the one in my avatar?

I'd have to double-check, but that sounds right to me. yes ...

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in a lot of ways, Garner Holt is disturbingly similar to Don Bluth. Effectively, he "gets" animatronics, much like Bluth gets Disney animation meaning that he can do it, but he lacks the ability to really make something that we haven't seen and bring us into a story. WDI needs Pixar/Studio Ghibli vision and skill if you want more Pirates, Mansions, Sinbads from an AA perspective. I believe that if we are to have an attraction renaissance that will help WDI turn the tables and PROVE why they are the best, mind blowing AAs will be key, it's the one thing that Disney really has over Uni, but they don't use it/are letting it erode.

Having said that, having a third party building the AAs is like Pixar or Dreamworks having a third party building character models (the puppets so to speak). It makes you less flexible in being able to try new things. Also I'm fairly certain that the cost of building, in both man hours/$$, a Merida (look at that hair!!) are similar to building an Ursala or Mater AA if you are doing it in house and have the best people. Robotics has evolved so much since the Disneyland tiki room/space age. Garner can do that era stuff. So, this is a continuation of the penny pinching cash in culture. Disney needs to have technological foresight and as long as you don't do a EuroDisney and over build hotels you will make money in the long run. To conclude, I'd like to quote a recent Time article where Ed Catmull discussed what I'm talking about.
http://goo.gl/IpYfK

"When Walt Disney started, people didn’t know how to make films. They were figuring out how to add color, how to sync sound. When Walt died, they stopped advancing the technology. And they also went downhill in their films. I think that’s related."

 

[the.dreamfinder]

If Disney buys anybody, they might want to start here. http://www.bostondynamics.com M&G Dug and Kevin anyone?

 

[flynnibus]

Disney doesn't have an exclusive on technology or vision...

Remember tons of people with such skills LEFT or were shown the door. That talent still exists and is external to Disney.

Much of the talent that built great classic Disney stuff like Epcot aren't with Disney anymore.

Inside Disney is not the only place great things can happen

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Disney doesn't have an exclusive on technology or vision...

Remember tons of people with such skills LEFT or were shown the door. That talent still exists and is external to Disney.

Much of the talent that built great classic Disney stuff like Epcot aren't with Disney anymore.(Don't forget DLP and TDS!!)

Inside Disney is not the only place great things can happen

I never said they are the only ones, but WDI can be great source of innovation and vision again.

 

[maryszhi]

so sad

 

[Bairstow]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that in a lot of ways, Garner Holt is disturbingly similar to Don Bluth. Effectively, he "gets" animatronics, much like Bluth gets Disney animation meaning that he can do it, but he lacks the ability to really make something that we haven't seen and bring us into a story. WDI needs Pixar/Studio Ghibli vision and skill if you want more Pirates, Mansions, Sinbads from an AA perspective. I believe that if we are to have an attraction renaissance that will help WDI turn the tables and PROVE why they are the best, mind blowing AAs will be key, it's the one thing that Disney really has over Uni, but they don't use it/are letting it erode.

I hate to bring up the 20,000 pound half-gorilla in the room, but WDI's over-ambitious un-fixable yeti is almost certainly at the heart of this decision.
At a certain point, technical ambition and cost far exceed what's possible or even prudent in attraction design.
Compare the broken yeti to the simple but charming and fully-function Marc Davis-inspired bears Garner Holt built for Big Grizzly Mountain:

At the end of the day, mind-blowing animatronics don't lead the day.
Working ones do.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I hate to bring up the 20,000 pound half-gorilla in the room, but WDI's over-ambitious un-fixable yeti is almost certainly at the heart of this decision.
At a certain point, technical ambition and cost far exceed what's possible or even prudent in attraction design.
Compare the broken yeti to the simple but charming and fully-function Marc Davis-inspired bears Garner Holt built for Big Grizzly Mountain:

At the end of the day, mind-blowing animatronics don't lead the day.
Working ones do.

They go with GH because he's cheaper. I'm talking about long term effects, in the short term, they will be fine. Regarding the yeti, I'll defer to an insider like lee, but he said previously it has more to do with an overkill design (747 thrust) and improper assembly when it got to Florida. Lee, does that sound about right?

EDIT- I forgot to mention in my original post something that l wanted to mention, but not as in depth as I would have liked. I don't believe that every AA should be a yeti, but why can't we have improvements like the MAPO built AAs in Hunny Hunt or Sinbad or JTTCoTE? If I recall correctly, at Disneyland, there was a period where the Auctioneer in Pirates would be updated with the latest AA tech to make him more expressive because he is such so key to that part of the attraction. The tiny details matter immensely in animation. I was just listening to a film podcast and they were talking about a scene at the beginning of TS3 where Andy is watching a movie with the toys and he puts a piece of popcorn in Rex's mouth and it falls out. That tiny detail makes the biggest difference in that scene much like the nuances of Winnie the Pooh's legs dangling at the beginning of Hunny Hunt. IMHO the lack of steady constant investment in building and developing AAs in house will make this harder to do in the future.